


Like Father

by hisloss



Series: Come With Me/ to the Sea [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Wingman Jason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 12:37:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3810682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hisloss/pseuds/hisloss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jason suggested that Nico kidnap Percy - because "It worked for your dad, didn't it?" - he was only joking. He didn't expect his friend to actually do it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Father

_In retrospect, Hades wondered if it was such a good idea to wear his helmet of terror on a first date, but by then it was too late._

\- _**Percy Jackson's Greek Gods**_  

* * *

 

It was easy to tell that Percy was the son of a god, Nico mused. He was built like one – muscular without being obnoxious about it, tanned from spending his days on the beach, brave and battle smart with a natural instinct to defend those in danger.

And Nico was in danger.

He groaned and slipped back into the shadows of the dock, just barely holding back from cursing Aphrodite. He _wasn’t_ developing a crush on someone who was technically his cousin.

He spent the rest of the day collecting souls and supervising punishment in the field, actively _not_ thinking about Percy Jackson. It didn’t work, of course, because by sunset he was back at the dock, just in time to watch Poseidon’s favored son rise from the sea, dripping wet. He suppressed a whimper. Percy flicked his hair once and water droplets fell off him, leaving him completely dry. Nico watched him pull on a T-shirt and spread himself out on the sand. He was asleep in almost no time at all, but Nico took care to be as quiet as the very darkness when he sidled up to him.

“This is stupid,” he whispered, but he stayed until the sun rose and sank into Percy’s shadow just as he started to stir awake.

* * *

 

He was collecting souls in a nondescript suburban neighborhood when the air sparked and cracked open by his left ear. He nearly dropped the thin,  wispy ghost of the old woman that he’d come to collect in surprise.

“Hey, Nico,” greeted Jason.

“ _Grace_ ,” he bit out in reply. “I’m kind of busy here.”

“How have you been?” Jason continued conversationally.

Nico heaved a heavy sigh – and the soul in his arms – before answering. “Peachy. Yourself?”

“Never better.”

“Awesome. Nice seeing you,” he replied tersely, opening up the ground.

“Piper tells me that Percy Jackson hasn’t been sleeping alone lately.”

This time Nico really _did_ drop the old lady, and it took several frantic minutes to track down her physical body, hobbling down the street in her nightdress.

“My dad is going to _literally_ kill me!” He shoved Jason into a mailbox.

“So, about Percy — “

Nico’s face burned. “He sleeps out in the open,” Nico explained.

“So you watch over him all night.”

“Okay, so I like him,” Nico confessed, aggravated. “Please tell me your girlfriend didn’t tell anyone else about this.”

“Relax, Neeks. She only told me. Despite what you may think about Aphrodite’s kids, they don’t go around blabbing about everyone’s crushes.”

“Goodbye, Jason.”

“He broke up with Annabeth Chase three months ago. Before that he had a thing for a son of Hermes. Just ask him out.”

“I haven’t even _talked_ to him.”

“We could ask Piper for help.”

“I don’t even _know_ your girlfriend.”

“You could always do what your dad did when he was too shy to talk to Persephone?” Jason shrugged. 

Nico groaned loudly and was grateful that the earth could literally swallow him up.

* * *

 

Two days later, Jason appeared at his side again after Percy walked into the ocean.

“You’ve got it _bad_.”

Nico shoved him into the sand. “Stop. Popping. Up. Like that.” He sighed. “I’m seriously considering your suggestion,” he murmured.

“Neeks. I was joking.”

But Nico had already sunk into the shadow of the dock.

* * *

 

Percy was laying on the beach when it exploded. His sword was in his hand immediately. A huge black chariot flew out of the crevice in the sand. The driver pulled hard on the reins and fixed Percy with a blazing stare. Two skeletons jumped off the back and threw Percy to his feet.

When he came to, he was laying in a bed covered in dark sheets, staring up at a chandelier made of bone.

The last thing he remembered was the dark eyes beneath the helm of the chariot driver that snatched him up. There was something almost sad about them. Maybe there was a good reason he’d been abducted. Maybe that boy needed his help. He got up from the bed and looked around. The décor wasn’t very cheerful, but it was a spacious room. A fireplace stood at the other end, alive with bright green Greek fire. At a table in front of it was a heaping bowl of fruit. Percy almost reached for it, but then remembered Chiron’s lessons. If you find yourself in a strange place, you should never touch any food. Try not to touch anything. Luckily, Riptide was in his pocket. On either side of the room was a door. Percy chose the one at left and was disappointed to find himself in a long dark hallway with a hundred tall, dark, identical doors leading in both directions. He closed it, tried the other door, and was rewarded.

The room that he’d found was huge; the walls and ceilings were made of dark green glass, and in the middle was a beautiful swimming pool with a tiled edge and bottom. It had a number of slides and fountains and a cabana.

“Do you like it?”

Startled, Percy looked up. Near the top of the tallest water slide was a balcony made of deep green marble.

“Hey! It’s you!” he called, relieved. “You brought me here, right? Your pool is awesome.”

“It’s yours,” the boy corrected. “I had it made for you.” He turned around and left the balcony. Percy waited for him to come out through another door, but after a while he got tired of waiting and took a swim. When he got tired of that, he went back into the bedroom and slept. Two days passed in the same way, and Percy was getting irritable. He hadn’t eaten anything, and the boy hadn’t reappeared.

On the third day, when Percy was tired of swimming, the balcony door opened.

“Why did you bring me here?” Percy demanded without preamble.

“My dad says I have to take you back,” the boy answered. “He doesn’t want a fight with your dad.”

“Who’s your dad?”

“I’m Nico, son of Hades.” He went through the door, but this time emerged from behind one of the elaborate fountains.

“Why did you bring me here?” Percy repeated.

“I’m going to shadow travel you back, okay? Don’t freak out,” Nico said, ignoring his question. He came and stood next to Percy and opened his palms to the ground. A dozen shadows carpeted their feet in an instant, and they were sucked into it. When the shadows ripped away they were back on the beach. Percy opened his mouth to ask for explanations, but the shadows wrapped around Nico and he was gone.

* * *

 

He didn’t think he’d see the other boy again, but when he woke up the next morning there he was. Percy sprang away defensively, drawing Riptide.

“I’m here to apologize!” Nico cried, throwing his hands up.

Percy lowered his sword. “You kidnapped me without explanation and nearly started a war between our parents. How are you planning to apologize for that?”

“I heard you like blue pancakes?” the son of Hades offered weakly, holding out a covered silver platter.

Percy wanted to be angry. Really. But the other boy looked so endearing, and for whatever reason he’d abducted Percy, it certainly hadn’t been ill-intended. He put Riptide away. “Are you going to stay and share them with me?” he asked. Nico looked surprised at the invitation, but agreed. They sat on the edge of the dock and ate half a dozen each. “These are almost as good as the ones my mom makes,” Percy complimented.

Nico looked relieved. “I’m glad.”

“Did you make them yourself?”

Nico just nodded.

After a while of sitting in silence, Percy spoke up. “I’ve actually got work to catch up on, so…”

“Right,” Nico agreed. “I’m sorry. About holding you against your will and all.”

He looked so nervous and scared that Percy completely let go of his anger. “It’s okay,” he said. “Just don’t do it again.”

* * *

 

Two days later Nico was gathering souls from a shipwreck when Percy swam over. “Hey, need any help?”

He could actually carry souls if he manipulated the water in a certain way, and Nico was grateful for it. They barely exchanged words, but the son of Poseidon gave him a tentative smile as he sank back into the underworld.

They crossed paths a few more times over the following weeks. Nico suspected Jason had something to do with it since he was in charge of handing out quests unless they were personally assigned by a major of minor god.

“I said I’d be your wingman,” he said when Nico confronted him about it.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Nico admitted. “I already screwed things up with the kidnapping.”

Jason shrugged. “You never know.”

He handed Nico his next quest and went off, probably to gossip with his girlfriend. Nico frowned and opened up the assignment, mentally cursing his friend. He was tasked with retrieving a sacred object from the bottom of the ocean.

“I’ll probably drown,” he muttered, stepping into the nearest shadow.

Percy was no where to be seen when he came to the beach, but Nico didn’t have long to wait. Less than fifteen minutes later Percy rode in on a hippocampus. Great. As if he didn’t look heroic enough on his own, he had to come riding in on the oceanic version of a valiant steed.

“Hey, Nico,” he greeted. “What’s up?”

“Jason gave me a quest I’m pretty sure was intended for you.”

“Oh?”

“I’m supposed to go to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve a Baetylus, whatever that is.”

“It’s a rock.”

“I’m going to _kill_ Jason. How am I supposed to know which rock it is?”

Percy laughed. “It’ll be pretty distinctive. And it gives off life, so if I get you close enough, you should be able to sense it, right?”

“I guess?”

Percy grinned. “Now I get to get back at you for the shadow travelling.”

Nico braced himself. Percy held his arms open toward the shore and a huge wave swelled up and crashed down on them. When he opened his eyes, they were floating in a bubble underwater.

It took them a couple of hours to find the stone and them fight off a sea serpent that got in their way – Percy broke the air bubble in two so that he could fight easier, which just made Nico panic. He dumped the treasure unceremoniously on the sand when they came out of the ocean and scowled at it.

“If Jason gives me another quest that requires me to be near water, I — ”

“Don’t you like partnering with me?” Percy asked.

“…it’s not that _I don’t_ ,” Nico argued.

“I can teach you how to swim” Percy offered, and yeah, Nico needed to stop fantasizing about that.

“Stop being so nice to me,” he said, and it sounded harsher out loud. Thankfully, Percy ignored him.

“We’re friends.”

“We’re friends,” Nico repeated, skeptically.

“We’re friends,” Percy assured him, “You don’t have to carry me off to the underworld if you want to hang out. I’m right here.”

Nico stared at him. “You think _that’s_ why I did that?”

Percy blinked. “Isn’t it?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t get it.”

Nico thought about chucking the Baetylus at his head. Instead, he pulled the other boy down to his height and kissed him. It was brief, but it did the trick. When he pulled away, Percy was stunned, but he was looking at Nico differently.

“Oh,” he said quietly, and Nico’s heart dropped. He turned away, feeling hot tears rising. “Oh!” Percy said a little louder, then pulled Nico close and kissed him back.

* * *

 

“I have sand in places I can’t even _name_ ,” Nico muttered darkly.

“Sorry. I’ll put a blanket down next time,” Percy promised, tossing him his shirt.

“Next time,” Nico deadpanned, incredulous.

“Unless I was just a conquest for you?”

Nico blushed hard and pulled the shirt over his head. “No,” he whispered. “I like you. A lot.”

Percy leaned over and kissed him chastely. “Thank gods.” He looked pensive. “Aphrodite in particular. We should make offerings.”

Nico scoffed.

“She hates me,” Percy explained seriously. “If she finds out I hooked up with the guy I’ve been crushing on for weeks and didn’t even think to thank her — ”

“ _Weeks_?”

“Uh. Yeah.” He laughed.

“Oh,” Nico whispered, awed. “Um… do you want to be my boyfriend?”

Percy leaned in to kiss him again, less chaste this time. “Do I ever.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> FYI the Baetylus is the stone that Kronos swallowed thinking it was Zeus. So it's safe to say that Jason probably borrowed that trinket off his dad's trophy shelf and dumped it at the bottom of the sea so that Percy and Nico would have to spend time together.


End file.
